Change a virtual machines boot order [Hyper-V Script]

If you need to change the boot order of a virtual machine programmatically (so that it will boot off of the network first – for example) it is relatively straight forward:

 # Function for handling WMI jobs / return values
 Function ProcessResult($result, $successString, $failureString)
 {
    #Return success if the return value is "0"
    if ($result.ReturnValue -eq 0)
       {write-host $successString} 
  
    #If the return value is not "0" or "4096" then the operation failed
    ElseIf ($result.ReturnValue -ne 4096)
       {write-host $failureString "  Error value:" $result.ReturnValue}
  
    Else
       {#Get the job object
       $job=[WMI]$result.job
  
       #Provide updates if the jobstate is "3" (starting) or "4" (running)
       while ($job.JobState -eq 3 -or $job.JobState -eq 4)
          {write-host $job.PercentComplete "% complete"
           start-sleep 1
  
           #Refresh the job object
           $job=[WMI]$result.job}
  
        #A jobstate of "7" means success
        if ($job.JobState -eq 7)
           {write-host $successString}
        Else
           {write-host $failureString
           write-host "ErrorCode:" $job.ErrorCode
           write-host "ErrorDescription" $job.ErrorDescription}
        }
 }
  
 # Prompt for the Hyper-V Server to use
 $HyperVServer = Read-Host "Specify the Hyper-V Server to use (enter '.' for the local computer)"
  
 # Prompt for the virtual machine to use
 $VMName = Read-Host "Specify the name of the virtual machine"
  
 # Get the management service
 $VMMS = gwmi -namespace root\virtualization Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService -computername $HyperVServer
  
 # Get the virtual machine object
 $VM = gwmi MSVM_ComputerSystem -filter "ElementName='$VMName'" -namespace "root\virtualization" -computername $HyperVServer
  
 # SettingType = 3 ensures that we do not get snapshots
 $SystemSettingData = $VM.getRelated("Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingData") | where {$_.SettingType -eq 3}
  
 # Change the boot order.  This is an array of four entries.
 # The first entry in the array is the first boot choice.
 # The second is the second, and so on.  The values map as follows:
 #
 # 0 == Floppy
 # 1 == CD
 # 2 == IDE
 # 3 == Net
 #
 # The command below sets up the boot order as:
 # Network, CD, IDE, Floppy
 $SystemSettingData.BootOrder = @(3,1,2,0)
  
 # Commit the changes
 $result = $VMMS.ModifyVirtualSystem($VM, $SystemSettingData.GetText(1))
  
 # Check to see that it all worked
 ProcessResult $result "BIOS settings have been updated." "Failed to update BIOS settings."

Cheers,

Ben

ChangeBootOrder.zip

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 28, 2011
  Hi Ben, Great blog - Thanks! I need to configure bios settings from inside the virtual machine itself without connecting through the Network to its own physical (hyperV) server... Do you know how I could manage that? Best, Paul